Marked for Francis Chege
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market21 Feb 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Oshobe Oladele was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Michael Bodo falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match19 Feb 2028
Three points for Bidco United, 1‑0 the final word against KCB in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Michael Bodo dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Matthew Acton has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Bidco United will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Player ratings21 Feb 2028
5.23. Every footballer has these and most of them happen away from a full ground; his did not, and he will be aware of that all week.
Market21 Feb 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Bidco United know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Player ratings21 Feb 2028
An afternoon Francis Chege will want back
Marked 5.80. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Jul 2027
Clinton Asiago damages knee ligaments — 17 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 17 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Adama Traoré was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Chizoba Amaefule falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad5 Jul 2027
The manager makes an example of Richard Matloga
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Match3 Jul 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Adama Traoré. 1‑0 against Kariobangi Sharks, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Market5 Jul 2027
The name of Samuel Olunga has come up in conversations Bidco United were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Player ratings5 Jul 2027
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.62 on the card, and the Bidco United support went home talking about one name.
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
Bidco United sign 4 boys into the academy
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
Player ratings5 Jul 2027
5.67. Every footballer has these and most of them happen away from a full ground; his did not, and he will be aware of that all week.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 May 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Richard Matloga
29 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Bidco United lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad24 May 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market24 May 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bidco United can pretend not to have heard.
Match22 May 2027
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad24 May 2027
Adama Traoré was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad24 May 2027
Chizoba Amaefule falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match22 May 2027
APS Bomet left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings24 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings24 May 2027
An afternoon Adama Traoré will want back
Marked 5.43. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 May 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Richard Matloga
43 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Bidco United lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match5 May 2027
AFC Leopards go through and Bidco United go home, 0‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Market10 May 2027
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Bidco United, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad10 May 2027
Adama Traoré was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings10 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad10 May 2027
The manager makes an example of Thomas Wainaina
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad10 May 2027
Simon Munala falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match8 May 2027
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Posta Rangers came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
Player ratings10 May 2027
5.38 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 Nov 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 97 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad2 Nov 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Oshobe Oladele was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
In brief
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Squad
Words at Bidco United training over how hard people work
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Boardroom
95% of the income goes out in wages at Bidco United